


The Calling

by CommanderBayban



Category: Casualty (TV)
Genre: Ableist Language, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Doctor Who References, F/M, Gen, Yes this is a story about a one-off side character, relationship compromise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:22:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27472711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderBayban/pseuds/CommanderBayban
Summary: David gets a (second) opportunity to travel into space and he's not going to pass it up for anything! But how will his wife take the news?(Based on the characters from (and set after) the S12E18 episode "An Eye For an Eye")
Relationships: David Vincent & Josephine Vincent





	The Calling

Josephine shut the door behind her and let out an exasperated sigh. Her keys jangled as she tossed them into her cracked faux-leather purse, which she hung from a handle on the wall. She ran a hand through her brunette hair, ruffling it at the nape and crown, and kicked off her trainers. Another long, tedious day at the office. Another day of counting down to her non-existent holiday on the beach.

She traipsed into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine—another bottle gone without a trace. As the smooth stuff coated her palate, she lifted her head and closed her eyes as though falling into the lap of luxury. A small breath of air passed through her lips—soft, yet weary. How senseless ‘this’ all was, in the grand scheme of things: pushing paper only for it to roll back to meet her, the neverending rattle of keyboards echoing throughout her mind. None of it benefitted her in any way. Pah, they wouldn’t even care—even _notice_ —if she had never returned.

Her eyes shot open and, unconsciously, her body jumped back.

“ _David!_ ”, she yelped, holding a hand to her pulsating chest, “Don’t startle me like that!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, solemnly.

Josephine took another swig, her eyes transfixed on her husband’s contemplative expression. He was still dressed in his suit despite his shift ending hours before hers...and it being past nine. If he had plans that night, why brood over them? He ‘went out’ all the time—though not in the conventional sense.

“What is it?” she asked, finally breaking the silence.

David stepped forward from the archway and stood behind the dining table chair closest to him. He gripped the top rail and exhaled as he turned his eyes down towards the seat, “I...will be leaving you for a while.”

She scrunched up her face and set her glass upon the counter. Another midnight stroll in the woods was not on his mind, apparently, but—no, it couldn’t be. If there was one thing for sure about her relationship with David it was that, despite his definition of ‘intimacy’ being to stuff facts about extraterrestrials down her throat over dinner, she never had to worry about him coming home wearing a scarlet letter. She’d never admit it, but he was far from being a ‘catch’. The percentage of people who desired a husband who constantly got himself into trouble in the name of alien hunting and UFO observing was next to none. As far as he was concerned, her only worry was that one day his job would finally press charges against him, or that he’d fall headfirst into a ditch.

“Leaving to go _where_?” she enunciated.

“I’ve finally found someone who understands me, Josephine!” His voice dripped with zeal and his eyes, which had lifted to meet hers, were dilated and full of conviction, “Someone who—who believes in what I say! Someone who doesn’t treat me like a lunatic!”

She clicked her teeth and shook her head, “And why, exactly, do you have to mosey off with them? Were the lunch break socials not good enough for you?”

“They aren’t from that wretched job. I found them elsewhere, well, more precisely, it was _them_ who found _me._ ”

Josephine picked up her glass and held it on the tip of her lips, “We’re both being ambiguous about the pronoun use...male or female?” Her tone was blasé with a hint of accusation.

David smirked incredulously and threw up his hands, “This is exactly what I mean, Josephine! Names, gender...why does any of it matter when there are _aliens_ roaming the planet as we know it?! _He_ simply called himself the Doctor—” He scoffed, “You really think I’d stoop as far as committing adultery? Sex and romance are the last things on my mind!”

She turned her back to him so he wouldn’t see how far her face had dropped, “I know.”

“Darling—” David rested a tender hand on her shoulder and, not a moment later, she raised hers to meet it; their fingers curling within one another’s. He bent down and gently pecked her forehead but remained silent.

“I just don’t understand why you do all of this,” her voice was frail and seemed to warble, “No, I know what you always tell me, but it just doesn’t make any sense. The alien thing was cute back in university but...we’re grown adults. All you ever talk about is quasars or whatever the hell—You can’t even manage to be in good standing with that so-called job of yours that barely makes any money. Then you go trespassing on private property because you claimed aliens were in the depot...my gosh David!” She flipped herself around and stared up at her husband with shimmering eyes, “Tell me _why._ ”

David’s lips set into a hard line, “It’s who I am,” he lamented, “You know I’ve always had a penchant for the interstellar...and now, having met the Doctor, I’m finally able to reap the rewards from my hard work.”

“ _‘You’re’_ finally able,” she scoffed, “Not ‘ _we_ ’”

“I feel like my calling has arrived, Josephine!” He plodded back to his original spot by the table and ran a tense hand through his hair. The conversation was banal to the point of being predictable; he knew that, no matter what he said, she would never truly comprehend what it all meant to him. Ever since they got married she never once showed an interest in his endeavours. It was always ‘why’ this and ‘why’ that, but never the kind of ‘why’ he wanted to hear. The only reason he hadn’t yet stormed out to lock himself away in his ‘laboratory’ was because he didn’t wish to leave her on a sour note.

“It didn’t arrive when that _thing_ possessed you and made your eyes glow like some kind of—?!”

“Don’t start!” He slammed his fist on the table; the glass vase of flowers tingled as it shook with the wooden base it sat upon, “I’ve heard it enough from you and everyone else!”

With his adrenaline pumping, he marched out of the kitchen; the paled Josephine shuffled behind him, confused about his capricious behavior.

David stood by the fireplace, fiddling with the unsolved tetrahedron-shaped rubik's cube that had its home on the mantle. With her arms wrapped around herself, Josephine took her place in front of the couch, “I’m sorry, David,” she mumbled, “Just...just tell me more about what you’re planning to do with this Doctor of yours…Who is he?”

“He’s a traveller from another planet—Gallifrey, he called it. In the Kasterborous constellation,” he replied, as though nothing had happened, “For an extraterrestrial, his ship is unlike any I’ve read about or seen anywhere else...a blue police box just like the ones here. But, my gosh, Josephine,” he turned to face her with a look of innocent wonder, his hands gesticulating to the rhythm of his words, “It was s _o much bigger_ on the inside! And he doesn’t only travel through space, but through _time! Time!_ Ha! Can you believe it?! And after a pint, he revealed that he needed a companion and _I_ had just the right spunk. _Me!_ It’s incredible to believe!”

“Amazing,” she deadpanned, “How is this any different than the last time?”

“Ah, well…I told you. They were not the nicest of people...But the Doctor! Now _he’s_ an honest man!” David glanced at his wristwatch and grimaced, “Provided I return before he decides to leave...I really must go now.”

Josephine stood motionless watching her husband with lost eyes. He had told her so much esoteric nonsense over the years that nothing truly surprised her anymore. Similarly, he had done so many stunts over the years that, when asked about them, her responses merely rolled off the tip of her tongue. Embarrassment was no longer a feeling she used to describe her marriage—more like willful apathy. A man in a police box who travelled around the universe? Either David was more out of touch with reality than she thought or there were more anorak nutcases roaming the streets than should be legal.

David trudged over to his wife and grasped both of her arms in a wide, exaggerated manner; squeezing gently, ”Darling...darling!”

She lifted her head slowly.

“I can’t explain more at the moment, but I need you to trust me. This may be the single most important thing I’ve ever—” His head dropped into his chest, “Damn it.”

“I understand,” she whispered, “How long will you be gone, exactly?”

“Indeterminate. There are a myriad of things I’d like to accomplish while I’m away.”

“Oh,” she fell into his arms, burrowing her face into his chest and hugging him as tightly as she possibly could. David may be an oddball, but he still was that same oddball she fell in love with all those years ago, “I will miss you, Vinny. More than you will ever know...Tell me you’ll call?”

His lips curved into a smile, “I...don’t know if there’s service in the far reaches of space.” Faint giggles, muffled by his clothes, vibrated within him, “Hm? What’s funny?”

Josephine, still having a whale of a time, turned her head for clarity, “It’s just amazing! Other people’s husbands get away at the golf course or some shoddy nightclub but not mine! You go to the moon!”

David gazed at the white ceiling above him. Where anyone else would see a simple ceiling, he could visualise entire constellations and galaxies. A white expanse to him was a blank canvas for his imagination—anything he wanted to see was right there in front of (or above) him. And despite his questionable follies, in a way Josephine admired his creativity. His tenacity. How he never masked his true self in the face of other people’s negativity.

She almost wished she was half as confident and determined as he was. Half as much of a dreamer. And, yet, she never expressed any of these feelings to him in detail. How would their situation be different if he knew half as much about her as she did about him? Maybe she, too, would be able to see the world from a different angle.

“The moon,” he chuckled, “I hope to go _much_ further than that!”

Josephine planted a small kiss on his cheek, “Well, wherever you go, I’ll be looking out for you.”


End file.
